The present invention relates to electronic imaging devices, and more particularly to cameras that can be preconditioned to recognize particular colors when they appear in an image.
Color provides important clues and information in video images. For example, a video scan of bananas could indicate if the bananas were ripe (yellow) or unripe (green). In the manufacture of candy, different package colors are used to indicate the candy flavor, e.g., apple (green), orange (orange), grape (purple), cherry (red), etc. So automated systems with color cameras and circuits that can distinguish or recognize particular colors could be used to sort and categorize products.
So, some prior art color sensing systems have included point sensors that are placed at the particular spot a certain color is expected to appear. This, of course, is very limiting. The spot chosen must be right, and the point sensor itself must not interfere with the processes being surveyed. A two-dimensional color recognition system is needed.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a color-recognition camera that can identify particular colors in a video image.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a color-recognition camera that can judge the geometric area of visible items with particular colors in a video image.
Briefly, a color-recognition camera embodiment of the present invention comprises a red-green-blue CCD-imaging device that provides an analog RGB-video signal. A set of three analog-to-digital converters convert the analog RGB-video signal into a digital RGB-video signal. A digital comparator tests the digital RGB-video signal pixel-by-pixel for a match against a color setpoint. If a match occurs, a pixel with a particular color represented by the color setpoint has been recognized and a xe2x80x9chitxe2x80x9d is output. A pixel address counter provides a pixel address output each time a xe2x80x9chitxe2x80x9d is registered. The number of hits per video frame are accumulated, and a color-match area magnitude value is output for each frame. Alternatively, neural networks are used to indicate hits when a pixel in the video image comes close enough to the color setpoint value. Just how close can be xe2x80x9clearnedxe2x80x9d by the neural network.
An advantage of the present invention is that a color-recognition camera is provided that can scan two-dimensional areas.
Another advantage of the present invention is that a color-recognition camera is provided that can judge the extent of the area with a recognized color.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments which are illustrated in the drawing figure.